A Wellington family are counting the cost of Kitchen Things’ receivership after being left with a stalled kitchen renovation and $16,000 out of pocket in yet-to-be-delivered appliances.  Customer Damion, who didn’t want his last name used, told the Herald they were in the final stages of a full house renovation, which was now in “limbo”.  “It’s the family kitchen we’ve always wanted but never had with smaller houses.  “Unfortunately we’re now in the final stages with some added stress that we didn’t need.”  The family of five, and a dog, have been renting a small two-bedroom unit down the road for the duration of the build.  “We can’t plan a move-in date as we don’t have appliances,” Damion said.  “Any delays will simply add more cost. And we’re not in a position to buy more appliances. That pot is empty for now.”  Damion said he paid the final instalment, about 50%, to Kitchen Things on the Friday before they went into receivership the following week.  “I have $16,000 of appliances that should be on their way to me but clearly are not,” he said.  “The last I heard [from Kitchen Things] on the Friday was ‘we’ll get this organised’ and haven’t heard anything since.”  Kitchen Things in Morrow St, Newmarket, is one of 12 stores currently closed after going into receivership. Photo / Jason Dorday  Damion said the day after Kitchen Things went into receivership, he was emailed by receivers at Grant Thornton after being identified as a potential customer and asked to reply with confirmation and proof of purchase.  He said he replied but has since received no response from the firm.  “I’m just incredibly disappointed at the lack of communication and the stress of not knowing what’s going to happen.  “Unfortunately, they’ve just left everybody absolutely in the dark.”  The Herald has contacted Grant Thornton for comment.  Consumer NZ said anyone who paid by debit or credit card should contact their bank immediately to get a chargeback.  Shattered dreams  Another couple who contacted the Herald said they were doing a kitchen renovation and had spent over $14,000 on appliances from Kitchen Things.  They paid the remaining 50% balance on a Monday, two days before Kitchen Things went into receivership, and received an email confirmation saying their items would be delivered that Friday.  “The goods are in location in their business and we’ve got a kitchen without any appliances,” the couple said.  “Not only that, we have a daughter living with us who had a stroke and needs medication stored in a fridge and [are] relying on a beer fridge for a family of three adults.  “The stress on our family is huge. As a couple in our sixties, we have never had a new kitchen and had borrowed money to make this happen and now find our dreams shattered.”  ‘Loss is considerable’  Ian Burkett told the Herald he and his wife had paid $6898 for two Bosch appliances from Kitchen Things.  The pair, in their 70s and who own a small pet shop, were waiting for their appliances to be delivered two days before Kitchen Things went into receivership, but they never came.  “This is the first time we were going to have a brand new stove and it would be our first-ever dishwasher,” Burkett said.  He said he was “cursing” himself as originally they were to be delivered on August 1, but they had to postpone.  Burkett said now they haven’t got an oven at all and they have a big hole where the dishwasher should be.  “Business is so bad, we’re basically surviving on our pensions. A loss of $6898 is considerable.  “If we don’t get our money back, we’re going to have to go and buy some cheap stove that we can barely find the money for as opposed to something we really wanted.”  Cameron Smith is an Auckland-based business reporter. He joined the Herald in 2015 and has covered business and sports. He reports on topics su... Read...

Some of Silicon Valley’s most powerful investors and executives are backing a political committee created to financially support “pro-AI” candidates in the 2026 United States Midterms. They aim to quash a philosophical debate that has divided the tech industry on the risk of artificial intelligence overpowering humanity. Leading the Future, a super PAC founded this month, will also oppose candidates perceived as slowing down AI development. The group said it has initial funding of more than US$100 million ($170.65m) and backers including Greg Brockman, the president of OpenAI; his wife, Anna Brockman; and influential venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, which endorsed President Donald Trump in the 2024 election and has ties to White House AI advisers. The super PAC aims to reshape Congress to be more supportive of major industry players such as OpenAI, whose ambitions include the construction of trillions of dollars’ worth of energy-guzzling data centres and policies that protect scraping copyrighted material from the web to create AI tools. It seeks to sideline a faction known in tech circles as “AI doomers”, who have asked Congress for more AI regulation and argued that today’s fallible chatbots could rapidly evolve to be so clever and powerful that they threaten human survival. Billionaire investor Marc Andreessen, whose venture firm backed Leading the Future and has spent US$2.7m so far this year lobbying Congress, filings show, has called those efforts “doomer astroturf” – designed to create the appearance of grassroots concerns. Leading the Future is modelled in part on Fairshake, a tech-funded super PAC that led a coalition of groups to funnel more than US$130m into congressional races last year and secure favourable regulations for cryptocurrency. That intervention helped topple popular Democrats like Katie Porter and Sherrod Brown, setting the stage for crypto-friendly legislation in Trump’s second term. The AI industry has not faced the regulatory headwinds that once stymied crypto firms. Josh Vlasto, a leader of the new AI super PAC and an adviser to Fairshake, said in an interview that Leading the Future could engineer similar success in Washington for the faction of the AI industry he characterised as having an optimistic and forward-looking agenda. Andreessen Horowitz, which has billions invested in cryptocurrency and AI ventures, also backed Fairshake. Chris MacKenzie, vice-president of communications for Americans for Responsible Innovation, an advocacy group that supports AI regulation, said adopting Fairshake’s tactics could be effective. “Lawmakers just have to know there’s US$100m waiting to fund attack ads to worry about what happens if they speak up,” MacKenzie said. His group helped co-ordinate opposition to a 10-year moratorium on state AI regulation that was passed by the House but died in the Senate last month. Leading the Future will also take on a philosophical rift that has dominated debate over AI policy following the launch of ChatGPT. It pits “doomers” against “AI boomers”, who argue that the industry must be allowed to accelerate without restrictions if AI is going to help society advance. The optimistic view is pushed by a loose coalition of start-up executives, Silicon Valley investors, and open-source AI enthusiasts, who often cite the need for the US to beat China in a technological race. Many groups and figures who take the more pessimistic view have ties to effective altruism, a movement that has largely pivoted to focusing on dangers that super-advanced AI could pose. Vlasto described that camp as a formidable opponent that has spent the past decade building up a network of think-tanks and policy organisations. Michael Kleinman, head of US policy at the non-profit Future of Life Institute, which has campaigned for the tech industry and regulators to consider AI an existential risk to humanity, said the new super PAC is a sign of desperation from AI firms after the failed att... Read...

SpaceX’s Starship megarocket roared into the skies today on its 10th test flight, turning in a strong performance after a series of fiery failures had begun to cast doubt on its future. Towering 123m, Starship is the most powerful launch vehicle ever built and key to founder Elon Musk’s vision of carrying humanity to Mars, as well as Nasa’s plans to return astronauts to the moon. The stainless-steel colossus blasted off from the company’s Starbase in southern Texas at 6.30pm local time to loud cheers from engineering teams, as seen in a live webcast. A few minutes into the launch, the first-stage booster known as Super Heavy splashed down into the Gulf of Mexico, triggering a sonic boom on its way. Unlike other recent tests, SpaceX opted not to attempt a catch with the giant “chop stick” arms of the launch tower, instead testing how it would perform if an engine cut out. Attention then shifted to the upper stage - also known individually as Starship and intended to one day carry crew and cargo - to demonstrate its capabilities as it soared into space. For the first time, SpaceX was able to successfully deploy eight dummy Starlink internet satellites, with onboard cameras beaming back live views of a robotic mechanism pushing each out one by one. It was not all smooth sailing. Some heat tiles fell away, and a small section of a flap burned off during the vessel’s fiery descent, as it was enveloped in pink and purple plasma. SpaceX communications manager Dan Huot said much of this was expected as the vehicle was intentionally flown on a punishing trajectory with some tiles removed. “We’re kind of being mean to this starship a little bit,” he said on the webcast. “We’re really trying to put it through the paces and kind of poke on what some of its weak points are.” “Great work by the SpaceX team!!” Musk wrote on X. Critical mission Much had been riding on the mission, after the last three flights ended with the upper stage exploding: twice over the Caribbean and once after reaching space. In June, an upper stage blew up during a ground test. This time, the upper stage successfully splashed down in the Indian Ocean. “Splashdown confirmed! Congratulations to the entire SpaceX team on an exciting 10th flight test of Starship!” the US company wrote on X after the roughly hour-long mission. Despite recent setbacks, Starship was not seen as being at a crisis point. SpaceX’s “fail fast, learn fast” philosophy has already given it a commanding lead in launches with its Falcon rockets, while Dragon capsules ferry astronauts to the ISS and Starlink has become a geopolitical asset. Still, even with a successful 10th flight, major challenges loom. Musk has identified developing a fully reusable orbital heat shield as the toughest task, noting it took nine months to refurnish the Space Shuttle’s heat shield between flights. “What we’re trying to achieve here with Starship is to have a heat shield that can be flown immediately,” he said on a webcast on Tuesday. Another hurdle is proving Starship can be refuelled in orbit with super-cooled propellant - an essential but untested step for the vehicle to carry out deep-space missions. Time is running short to ready a modified version as Nasa’s lunar lander for 2027, and for Musk to make good on his vow to send an uncrewed Starship to Mars next year. -Agence France-Presse Read...

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